We’re thrilled to welcome Zhao Ruo Tong to stay at Convention House from February until April 2025 to explore their practice whilst exploring Leeds.
As an artist, Zhao Ruo Tong is interested in the dynamics between urban space and social collective consciousness. Throughout their time in Leeds, Ruo will have access to facilities at Convention House to develop methodologies further using new technologies to explore urban space and how it is used. Ruo will develop a new project that explores tropical plants, memories and community exchange through performances and screenings working with local community groups across Leeds.
Moritz Cheung, Platform Asia, said, “We’re excited to welcome Ruo to Leeds as part of our second year collaborating with East Street Arts and AIR Taipei. This partnership has provided valuable opportunities for Asian artists to benefit from the dynamic creative environment at East Street Arts. Ruo’s community-focused practice aligns seamlessly with our shared interest in how collaborative art can empower and create inclusive spaces for local minority communities. We look forward to seeing how Ruo’s research and interventions will engage with spaces across the city.”
This is a continuation of our partnership with Platform Asia, following on from a successful residency for Taiwanese artist Jui-Hung in Leeds, and Leeds-based artists SAYANG and James Thompson travelling to the Treasure Hill Artist Village in 2024.
Ruo will be in residence at the Convention House from 22 February until 12 April 2025.
About Zhao Ruo Tong
Zhao Ruo Tong (b. 1998) is a director and interdisciplinary artist from Taiwan, working with film, video installations and artist books. Her works often explore the interrelationships among space, emotion, and technology, discussing how imaging technologies, visual elements, and architectural spaces influence human emotions and bodily perceptions, as well as how emotions and collective consciousness shape spaces and objects.
She began shooting documentaries at the age of nineteen, covering topics ranging from migrant workers to sex workers, and has accumulated extensive experience in creating short films, music videos, and commercials. With this background, her works are rooted in the field research methods of documentary filmmaking, based on reality, objects, or spaces as subjects to establish connections with the body and memory. Through deconstructing cinematic elements and the relationships between images and their creators, she reconstructs and collages visuals and texts to create multi-layered, non-linear narratives. Her works have been shortlisted for and won awards at numerous film festivals and have been screened and exhibited in Taiwan, Thailand, Japan, France, and the United States.
Find Ruo Tong:
Website ruotongzhao.com
Instagram: @chuchuchuchubby | Video Art Guerrilla Instagram: @videoartguerrilla
About Platform Asia
Platform Asia is a UK-based organisation dedicated to promoting Asian contemporary art. We develop opportunities for Asian artists by presenting, discussing, and creating works while promoting Asian artists’ work to audiences. Calling the UK our home, we connect professionals and audiences interested in, and new to, Asian art and culture via developing the UK-Asia network and by showing work that inspires and builds appreciation for contemporary Asian art and culture.
The residency is a partnership between East Street Arts, Artist-in-Residence Taipei and Platform Asia and has been supported by Arts Council England and the Taipei City Department of Cultural Affairs.
